British Columbia Gambling

British Columbia Region

First of all, let’s get to know the province together with NativeCasinos. So, the province is named British Columbia in English and Colombie-Britannique in French. British Columbia is the westernmost Canadian province that is located between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. In 2019, the population of Colombie-Britannique is estimated at 5.034 million, which makes this province the third-most populous in Canada.

Colombie-Britannique capital is Victoria, which was named after the British Queen Victoria, who reigned at the time when the original Canadian colonies were being created. Victoria is the fifteenth-largest metropolitan Canadian region.

The largest city of Colombie-Britannique is Vancouver, which is the largest city in Western Canada as well as the third largest city of Canada.

Legal regulations of gambling in Colombie-Britannique

As you might have already guessed, both online and offline gambling is absolutely legal in Canada and therefore in its provinces. According to the Canadian Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46), the federal and provincial governments allowed offering lottery schemes.

In 1974, there was formed the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) that served to operate lotteries on behalf of Colombie-Britannique, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba.

In 1985, Colombie-Britannique decided to separate from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation and formed its own The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC).

Gambling in Colombie-Britannique is basically provided by The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) that was founded in 1985 and empowered by the provincial Company Act which has nowadays evolved into the Business Corporations Act. Since the only stakeholder of BCLC is the province itself, it is absolutely free of bias and is known as a Crown corporation. BCLC is monitored and regulated by the provincial Gaming Control Act (GCA) that also serves to regulate and monitor all the gambling activities in this region.

According to the Gaming Control Act, BCLC is fully responsible for the following activities related to gambling:

• conducting and managing all commercial gaming activities in the province, including developing, organizing, and operating gaming activities on behalf of Colombie-Britannique either alone or together with the Canadian government of any other province;
• entering into agreements with the Canadian government or other Canadian provinces’ governments aimed at conducting and managing gaming;
• supplying operational services, gaming software and all kinds of technology equipment or supplies meant for gaming; entering into agreements related to gaming services;
• setting the rules for any lottery or any other game under its authorized operation;
• monitoring compliance with the requirements of the GCA by any other gaming services provider.

The province government takes it exceptionally serious when it comes to responsible gambling. Thus, in 2009, BCLC the responsible gambling program known as GameSense whose main purpose lies in assisting players in terms of their gambling choices as well as provide them all the necessary resources.

GameSense has been licensed to other Canadian and US gaming jurisdictions, such as Connecticut Lottery, Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, Alberta Gaming and Liquor, SaskGaming, Massachusetts Gaming, Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority, and MGM Resorts International.

We have told you already that both offline and offline gambling are absolutely legal in the province. In case if you still want to know what’s up with the legal aspects of online gambling in this province, this paragraph serves to address all your concerns in this regards and satisfy your curiosity. Online gambling in the province is also regulated by the BCLC.

According to the recently implemented legal regulations, if you intend to spend over CAD$10,000 on casino websites, you must pass additional identity checks as well as provide a detailed description of the source of your income. Good news is that none of your winnings is taxable in Colombie-Britannique as well as in the province in general.

Gambling facts and peculiarities in the BC province

First of all, you need to know that gambling in the province is allowed only for people aged 19 and older. According to the statistical data retrieved from BCLC reports of 2018, the average gambler in the province is aged around 50 and has post-secondary or higher education. What you might find particularly interesting is that of all BC gamblers there are 49% of men and 51% of women, which is quite surprising, huh? There’s also statistical data showing that the average annual income of a BC gambler is around $69.484, which slightly exceeds the income of an average British Columbian adult.

Nowadays, in Colombie-Britannique, there have been registered 18 community gaming centers, 36 land based casinos, and 6 bingo halls (BCLC). You must have learned already the top 10 out of 36 land based casinos where you can enjoy gambling in this province. We highly recommend you to check them out yourself and be convinced how cool they are in fact!

Just for your to know, the total number of slot machines operating in different provincial gaming facilities is nowadays over 13,027 gaming machines (BCLC). As for the table games variety, there are over 540 of them nowadays. In addition, there are over 59 live poker tables in the province. The most popular poker games in BC include the following: Texas Hold’em, NL Texas Hold’em, Fast Action Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha Hi, Crazy Pineapple, Pineapple Poker, Omaha, No Limit Texas Hold’em, No Limit Holdem, Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha, Pot Limit Hold ‘Em, Omaha Hi, Tournaments etc (BCLC). The betting range in BC casinos is quite democratic as it starts at just $0.01, while the max bet is $500, so BC gambling is acceptable for both low budget gamblers as well as high rollers. In such a way, you can see it yourself how gambling friendly Colombie-Britannique is!

No denying, gaming is quite important for the province’s economy since there are approximately 37.000 employees working in the gaming industry of this region as it’s stated in the BCLC reports of 2018. Out of these 37.000 employees, over 10.000 British Columbians work in the private sector’s casinos, bingo centers, community gaming centers, and horse race tracks.

The importance of gambling for the BC provincial budget is also explained by the fact that the gaming revenue is substantially bigger than the BC Hydro, fuel tax, royalties from forestry and natural gas, and the Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLC). Specifically, in 2016/2017, BCLC reported that the gaming revenue generated by community gaming, casino, and bingo operations was around $1.9 billion, which is quite impressive, huh?

To tell you more, Colombie-Britannique model for the gaming industry is the most profitable in Canada since the provincial government receives approximately 53% of gross gaming revenue compared to 39% in Ontario and 25% in Quebec.

Looking at these figures, it becomes evident why it’s so profitable for the province as well as for Canada in general to allow gambling. Based on the factual data provided above, it’s quite favourable for the provincial and state’s economy.